‘Sesame Street’ Introduces Two Black Muppets To Talk About Race & Racism
Image via Sesame Street in Communities
Sesame Street is introducing two new Muppets as part of an effort to nurture racial literacy in children.
The two Muppets, a Black son and father, are named Wesley Walker and Elijah. They were introduced in a short video created by Sesame Workshop, a non-profit educational organization.
The video titled Explaining Race shows Elmo wanting to know why Wes’s skin is brown, so his Wes’s father Elijah explains the concept of melanin and how “the color of our skin is an important part of who we are,” according to a press release from Sesame Workshop.
Sesame Workshop has also released a music video to the song Giant, which shows the Muppets celebrating their “own unique identities.”
There are also new resources being released to support families who wish to discuss race and racism with their children. This material is part of Sesame Workshop’s “Coming Together” series.
“At Sesame Workshop, we look at every issue through the lens of a child. Children are not colorblind—not only do they first notice differences in race in infancy, but they also start forming their own sense of identity at a very young age,” Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president Dr. Jeanette Betancourt said.
Sesame Workshop notes that the series is “rooted in extensive research and consultation with experts to develop a groundbreaking racial justice educational framework and curriculum” for children.
“Sesame Workshop has always stood for diversity, inclusion, equity, and kindness,” Kay Wilson Stallings, the executive vice president of creative and production at Sesame Workshop, said in a statement. “As a trusted source for families, we have a responsibility to speak out for racial justice and empower families to have conversations about race and identity with their children at a young age.”
[via HuffPost, cover image via Sesame Street in Communities]
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